Conference Competitors

The year's first addition of the AP Top 25 College Football Poll was released on Saturday, meaning that the College Football Season is upon us. The poll can be found in the Pages box, under "College Football Rankings". College Football is one of the more intense sports. Every week, anyone can win, upsets can happen at anytime. One loss could eliminate a team's chances at the national title. The first step in competing for the title is winning your conference. While it is not technically a requirement for participation in the Championship Game, it certainly looks good on the resume. I will pick the winners from each of the 6 major conferences. However, this does not mean that Boise State and TCU are out of the picture, even though they are stuck in the Mountain West Conference.

ACC - Florida State

The ACC is one of the less competitive football conferences, placing only two teams in the Top 25. Florida State should cruise through the Atlantic Division, having only N.C. State and Maryland as the other top competitors. Both teams are coming off successful seasons however both will experience a bit of turn over this season. N.C. State has lost star QB Russell Wilson to a transfer to Wisconsin. While Maryland will replace long time coach Ralph Fridgen with former UConn coach Randy Edsall. Florida State will have to move past the loss of QB Christian Ponder, but Jr QB EJ Manuel is more than ready to lead the Seminoles to victory, and he will have a pretty good defense on his side. The Coastal Division is a bit more of a mystery. The defending ACC Champions, the Virginia Tech Hokies, will have to compete with Miami and North Carolina. Both teams will have new head coaches to start the season, and Miami is in the middle of an NCAA investigation that looks like it could be very serious. In the end, I expect a rematch of last year's ACC Championship Game, with Florida State and Virginia Tech battling it out for the title. Florida State will win because they have more experience at QB, EJ Manuel stepped in a lot for the Seminoles last season when Christian Ponder was injured. However, sophomore Logan Thomas has not had much experience, throwing only 26 passes last season.

Big East - West Virginia

You could make an argument that the Big East is the least competitive conference in College Football. The Big East placed only one team in the Top 25, #24 West Virginia. West Virginia will come into 2011 with a whole new philosophy. New coach Dana Holgorsen will implement a pass first offense, unlike the past few years where they have run the ball aggressively with former Mountaineer RB Noel Devine. Pittsburgh and South Floridaa will be the other top competitors in the Big East. Last season, Pittsburgh looked like they would win the Big East easily, however they colapsed down the stretch, and Connecticut won the Big East. Todd Graham was hired to replace the departed Dave Wannstedt. Graham will have the conference's best defensive player, edge rusher Brandon Lindsey. Lindsey registered 10 sacks last year and will lead a Pittsburgh defense looking to compete in the Big East. South Florida could be competitive again this year due to their fairly easy schedule. Besides #16 Notre Dame to start the season and Miami, the Bulls could cruise through their schedule. The deciding game for them will be December 1st against West Virginia, if the Bulls can beat the Mountaineers, they may be able to win the Big East title. West Virginia will win the Big East because they will feature the best offense in the conference. Dana Holgorsen will turn Jr QB Geno Smith into a superstar. The young QB threw for 24 TDs last season in a run heavy offense.

Pac-12 - Stanford

The newly renamed Pac-12 welcomes newcomers, Colorado and Utah into the conference. Don't expect either of them to be major competitors this year. Utah comes over from the Mountain West where they dominated everyone, except TCU. Colorado comes over from the Big 12 where they weren't very competitive at all. You could honestly flip a coin between Oregon and Stanford, both teams are so close to one another and whoever wins on November 12th between the two schools will likely win the conference. Both teams feature Heisman contenders at QB. Oregon also features the nation's top RB, LaMichael James. James led the Ducks to the then Pac 10 title last season, rushing for over 1,700 yards and 24 TDs. However, the reason that I chose Stanford is because they have the nation's best QB, Andrew Luck. Luck finished 2nd in the Heisman Trophy voting last season and is considered the favorite to win the award this year. I expect Stanford to beat out Oregon to win the North Division. Arizona State and #25 USC will battle it out all season for the South Division title. I expect to see Matt Barkley and USC battling the Cardinal for the Conference Championship, in a matchup of future Top 10 Draft Picks. Stanford will come out victorious in what will be a high scoring contest.

Check out my blog tomorrow for my picks for the Big 10, Big 12, and SEC!